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THE 



LAWRENCE FAMILY 



OF GROTON, MASS. 



By 



Hon. SAMUEL A. GREEN, LL.D. 

IV 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON. 

1907. 



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[Kcpriiileil iVoin the New-Eujrlaiiil Hi^loricnl and (iencalogical Kcgister, July, 1907.] 



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THE LAWRENCE FAMILY OF GROTON. 



The following account of several Groton families is furnished in order 
to correct certain errors which appear in the Rev. John Lawrence's " Gen- 
ealogy of the Family of John Lawrence" (Boston, 1869). The leading 
error is printed on page 79, where it is said that John Lawrence, born at 

Groton, Nov. 13, 1741, married Sarah , and had seven children. 

According to the author "Mr. John Lawrence died Dec. 26, 1799, having 
been thrown from a sleigh in Cambridge, in the sixtieth year of his age, 
the same person, it is believed [Italics mine], who was born in Groton, 1741. 
The widow Sarah died Nov. 16, 1810, aged sixty-five years." This belief 
on the part of the author, based on an entii'e misapprehension of facts, has 
led to much confusion in the record of many families, as printed in the 
book. In fact it breaks utterly the connection of these families with this 
line of descent, and without authority adds another line of descendants. 

Without attempting to trace the various branches as there mentioned, I 
will give the correct record of John Lawrence, together with, an account 
of some of his descendants. The facts in the main are taken from the 
family Bible, now in the possession of Abel Lawrence, a grandson. 

Nathaniel Lawrence, Jr., and Dorothy Chamberlain, both of Groton, 
were married by the Rev. Caleb Trowbridge, on Feb. 4, 1728-9 ; and they 
had eight children, of whom John was the youngest sou, born Nov. 13, 
1741, and died Nov. 26, 1822. See Groton" Historical Series (III. 388) 
for a reference to the funeral of " Widow Lawrence y^ mother of John 
Lawrence aged 83 years," which took place in April, 1790. John mar- 
ried Abigail, eldest daughter of Ezekiel and Abigail ( — ) Nutting, 

born Oct. 10, 1753, and died July 10, 1847 ; and they had eight children, 
as follows : 

John, born April 4, 1777, died July 9, 1834. On July 16, 1799, 
he married Margaret Gragg, who died May 20, 1845. (See Gro- 
ton Epitaphs, p. 183.) 

Nathaniel, born April 28, 1779, and died June, 1779. 

Nathaniel, born July 25, 1780, and died July 1, 1831 ; his widow 
Sallv died Sept. 19, 1840. 

Ezekiel, born July 20, 1783, and died Sept. 30, 1789. 

Abigail, born Sept. 6, 1786. 

Abel, born June 12, 1789, and died May 4, 1835. 

Sarah, born Ajaril 8, 1792, and died Oct. 26, 1822. 

Mary, born April 1, 1795. 

Nathaniel, son of .John and Abigail (Nutting) Lawrence, was married 
to Sally Shattuck, daughter of Job and Elizabeth (Blood) Shattuck, born 
May 2'. 1790. He died July 1, 1831, and his widow, Sept. 19, 1840. 



Tlieir children were : 

Nathaniel, horn August 4, 1»(V5, uiarried Eliza Hubbard, had two 
children, and died about sixty years ago. 

Abigail, born Jan. 3, LSll, and died Aug. 23, 1812. 

tJolin, b<jrn Feb. 26, l.*:>13, and died Aug. 13, 1816. 
.^Daniel, born June 14, 1815, and died May 15) 1843. 

Abig:iil, l)orii Aulj. 11, 1817, and died in Lowell, June 15, 1835. 

John, lx)rn Sept. 22, IHl'J, and died unmarried in Townseud, Sept. 
7, 1897. 

Elizabeth, born Dec. 20, 1821, married Aug. 31, 1849, Alvin Da- 
vis, son of Silas and Patty Davis, of Hubbardston. They lived 
for fourteen years in Elmira, N. Y. ; and after her husband's 
death she returned to Groton, and is now (1907) living with her 
brother Abel, on Mollis Street. 

Abel, l)om Aug. 5, 1824, was married, March 5, 1849, at Townsend, 
by the Hev. Luther II. Sheldon, to Eliza, daughter af Minot and 
Sophronia (Hall) Baldwin, of Townsend. His wife died at Gro- 
ton, Sept. 14, 18i>3. 

William, born Dee. 9, 1827, and now living at Laconia, N. H. He 
has been married, and has had two daughters, but the wife and 
both ehiklren are dead. 

The children of Abel and Eliza (Baldwin) I^iwrence are Abel Lorenzo, 
born at Groton. March 2, 18.30, married Nelly Payne, of Detroit, Mich., 
and died there, Sept. 12, 1893, leaving two sons, both married, of whom 
one, Harold Payne I^iwrence, took the degree of M.D., at the Detroit 
College of Medicine in May, 1905 ; and 

Charles, born at Townsend, April 23, 1851, married, Aug. 18, 1880, 
Fanny D. Marsh, daughter of Charles D. and Margaret (Quackenbush) 
Marsh, of Marlboro; now living at Groton, no children. 

The will of the first Nathaniel, here mentioned, is on file in the Middle- 
sex Probate Office at East Cambridge. It is dated August 30, 1775, and 
was received at the office on October 4, 1775 ; and his death must have 
taken place between those <lates. It was not probated at Cambridge, — 
where the office then was,— until May 28, 1776. The delay, doubtless, 
was due to the confusion in the neighborhood during that Revolutionary 
period wlien the town was occupied by the American troo|>s. The assent 
to its probate was signed by five of the children, and by a grandson 
Nathaniel, only son and surviving heir of Nathaniel, Jr. lia his will he 
mentions son John, whom he made executor, daughter Dorothy Hud- 
son, sons Thomas and Isaac, daughter Abigail Gilson, and daughters 
Eunice and Martha. His daughter Dorothy was married to Benaiah 
Hudson, of Pepjierell, on March 7, 1754, and his daughter Abigail, to 
Nehemiah Gilson, of Groton, probably in the year 1765; and thev both 
had large familiea. 



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